Dec 8, 2012

Review: The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

Author: Nancy WerlinRating: 4 out of 5 starsJust so you guys know, it didn't choose to read this book. I had to read either this or Fat Kid Rules the World for summer reading. I actually really liked this.Here's the synopsis:

"For Matt and his
sisters, life with their cruel, vicious mother is a day-to-day struggle
for survival. But then Matt witnesses Murdoch coming to a child?s rescue
in a convenience store, and for the first time, he feels a glimmer of
hope. When, amazingly, Murdoch begins dating Matt?s mother, life is
suddenly almost good. But the relief lasts only a short time. When
Murdoch inevitably breaks up with their mother, Matt knows he needs to
take action. But can he call upon his hero? Or will he have to take
measures into his own hands? A heart-wrenching portrait of a family in
crisis, this is Nancy Werlin?s most compulsively readable novel yet."

Wow!
What a touching book. I read this book for school and let me tell you I
was not at all excited to read this book. When I did start to read this
book it was amazing. I loved it. I felt that Matt was such a vivid
character. He at first was very scared of his mother but as he continued
to grow older he became less scared and more worried about helping his
family. I loved how he was so brave and selfless.

I found that
the whole book was basically the plot and so there really was so problem
at all that would start somewhere in the middle of the book and be
solved at the end. Instead the problem started on the first page and
basically ended on the last. I really don't like to read books that do
that but in this book it worked.

Nikki, the mother, pissed me off
way too much. What mother, even if she is crazy, gets their first
grader drunk just to shut up? Honestly, I wished that Matthew had kicked
her head in. At least she wouldn't she wouldn't be terrorizing anyone
even after she had left them.

I wished that in the book the
author had written about what had happened to Murdoch. I had known from
the beginning that he had been abused as a child but I wanted to know
more. All I got that it was his dad that had abused him.